Let's See How the Game is Running
Published on March 27, 2005 By ScottTykoski In Bug Reports

Since we are in the 1st Phase of the Beta process, which we've sectioned off for perfomance testing and tweaking, I wanted to get a shout-out from you guys about how fast the game is actually running.

To get the game to show your 'Framerate' window, just make a shortcut to the EXE, then in the shortcut's properties window, set " framerate" to the Target field.

Now, when you boot up the game, you should have a nice little number (that hopefully hovers around 30) in your upper left hand corner.

What we're looking for is the highest and lowest framerate in 3 key places...

1. The Title Screen: This is a very bare-bones screen...it'll give us a good 'best case scenerio' for your machine.

2.  The Main Map: Scroll the map around.  Zoom out until you almost reach "tactical mode", this should be help get your lowest framerate.  Zoom all the way in to a part of the map with now planets or ships - this should help get your highest frame rate.

3. The Ship Design Screen: For some reason certain machines have has clunkiness problems with this guy in the past.  Make sure a medium hull is selected Toggle hardpoints on for your lowest framerate. Then bring up a small hull with hardpoints toggled off (use the lower left button on the camera controls) for your high framerate.

Also, if any of your framerates drop below 25, it'd be a great help if you could peek in debug.err and post out your system specs!

I'll get us started.

******************************

Title Screen: 39.0 - 39.8 fps
Main Map: 32.2 - 37.5 fps
Ship Design: 27.9 - 37.5fps

(And even though I didn't drop below 25 I'll still post my home specs)

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs)
Physical Memory: 1022MB RAM
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (75Hz)

******************************

So it looks like my home machine runs it pretty well.  However, I'll be testing the FPS again once we get 50 fleets of ships in the window at once..that may be a bit more painful than 1 colony and 1 survey ship 

Thanks in advance for anyone that takes the time to do this 


Comments (Page 3)
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on Mar 28, 2005
Evil Roy - did it work? I have emailed Scott about it but no I have not created a new thread for it...if it worked for you then I/we should.
on Mar 28, 2005
i think it is wydom@ker, but i'm crashing with something else now! maybe someone else can test it? i ia a crashzone i'm afraid
on Mar 28, 2005
Title Screen: 570-603 fps
Main Map: 90-122 fps
Ship Design: 70-130 fps

CPU: AMD Athlon64 3400+ (939)
RAM: 1 GB PC3200 DDR Dual Channel
VIDEO: Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
RES: 1400 x 1050 (32 bit) (75Hz)

on Mar 28, 2005
I'm wondering if running 64bit windows is giving me a huge advantage here.


It may be, I got similar high figures. Are you running the socket 939 or socket 754 3400+? (most are 754, the 939 3400+ doesn't officially exist...)
on Mar 28, 2005
I'm wondering if running 64bit windows is giving me a huge advantage here.


i'm wondering if the pope's a catholic.....
on Mar 28, 2005
I've got quite high FPS figures but I'm not running 64bit OS...
on Mar 28, 2005
Hey, alot of you are getting caps with your FPS due to vsync it looks like. I disabled it in my ATI control panel and got much highet FPS which shows what the your comp can really do.

I'm using socket 754... its also the 3400+ with 1mb l2 cache... so I'm sure that helps as well.

I't would be interesting if I installed 32bit XP on my comp and see how much a difference that might be making... I'm a bit busy latly so I don't know if I will have time to do it for awhile. If you all at SD are interested in it let me know and I can make more of an effort ... I wasn't expecting any support or anything for 64bit but it certinaly is fun to play around with.
on Mar 28, 2005
In the main map, I zoomed out to the point right before tactical mode and grabbed the map to move it around really randomly and quickly. I dropped to about 20 FPS when I did this. I didn't notice much slow-down in the ship creation screen.

******************************

Title Screen: 38.0 fps
Main Map: 20.2 - 35.7 fps
Ship Design: 28.9 - 40.0 fps


VSync Off
Title Screen: 73.6 - 77.3 fps
Main Map: 32.0 - 45.1 fps
Ship Design: 42.8 - 62.0 fps

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz Overclocked to 3.00GHz
Physical Memory: 768MB RDRAM
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1152 x 864 (32 bit) (60Hz)

******************************
on Mar 29, 2005
Debug Message: Version last updated on: Wed Mar 23 15:05:39 2005
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 3/29/2005, 16:22:19
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: SILVERMACHINE
Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional (5.0, Build 2195) Service Pack 4
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
System Model: A7N8X
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+, ~2.1GHz
Physical Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 199MB used, 3796MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINNT


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce4 Ti 4600
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0250&SUBSYS_03EA10B0&REV_A3
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (72Hz)
Monitor Name: Iiyama A701G/GT, VisionMasterPro 400
Monitor Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6177
Driver Date: 7/15/2004 11:42:00



Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: SB Audigy 2 Audio [C000]
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_10021102&REV_04
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Provider: Creative
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.0444
Driver Date: 6/23/2004 17:36:20
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0

Title: 72

Errr... Sry couldnt read what the frame rate was in the main map because i have large white stripes down the sides of my screen ( Link )

It runs very smoothly tho, so defo. above 30...

on Mar 29, 2005
Here's an older machine I tried it on:

Title Screen: 55.3 - 57.1 fps
Main Map: 14.6 - 27.1 fps
Ship Design: 27.5 - 29.1fps

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.50GHz
Physical Memory: 1024MB RAM
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro
Display Memory: 32.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
on Mar 29, 2005
Hey, alot of you are getting caps with your FPS due to vsync it looks like. I disabled it in my ATI control panel and got much highet FPS which shows what the your comp can really do.


Woa, you're right! I disabled Vsync and got much higher FPS.

My new score:

Title: 115 - 205
Main: 36.8 - 80
Ship Design: 89.7 - 109.6

My Specs Again with Vsync disabled:

P4 2.66 GHZ
512 MB RAM
Geforce 4 Ti 4200 with 8x AGP (latest drivers 71.84)
1024x768 at 32 bit
Windows XP Pro SP2
Direct X 9.0c
on Mar 31, 2005
Main Screen: 75+
Setting up the game: ~20
Tactical view: ~37
Zoom in on planet: ~30
Zoom in on nothing: ~42
Dragging the view around about half way zoomed in will drop me down to 18 fps sometimes.

Debug Message: Version last updated on: Wed Mar 23 15:05:39 2005
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 3/31/2005, 13:53:47
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: MINDSTORM
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: ECS
System Model: K7S5A
BIOS: Version 1.00
Processor: AMD Duron(tm) Processor, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.0GHz
Physical Memory: 768MB RAM
Page File: 183MB used, 1694MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce2 Ti
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce2 Ti
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0151&SUBSYS_00311545&REV_A4
Display Memory: 64.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (85Hz)
Monitor Name: Philips 107S (107S2)
Monitor Max Resolution: 1280,1024
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.7184
Driver Date: 2/24/2005 07:32:00



Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: Game Theater XP 6.1
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HERCULES\SOUNDFUSION_WDM_INTERFACE
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: cwcwdm.sys
Provider: Hercules
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.4057
Driver Date: 2/4/2002 16:17:30
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
on Mar 31, 2005
Woa, you're right! I disabled Vsync.

How do you do that?
on Mar 31, 2005
On startup:
Title Screen: 25.3 - 26.0
Main Map: 11.5 - 12.5
Ship Design: 15.1 - 18.0

DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2
System Manufacturer: VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model: KM400-8237
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.9GHz
Physical Memory: 448MB RAM

Display Info
Display device 1:
Card Name: VIA/S3G UniChrome IGP
Manufacturer: VIA/S3 Graphics Co, Ltd.
Chip Type: VIA/S3G UniChrome IGP
DAC Type: Internal
Display Memory: 64.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor Name: COMPAQ S700 Color Monitor
Monitor Max Resolution: 1280,1024
Driver Name: vtdisp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.0179
Driver Date: 9/27/2004 11:40:00
on Apr 04, 2005
Heres my laptops results at running 0.11b version:

Title: ~27
Main: 2.2 - 5.3
Ship Design: 9.9 - 11.5

And its as slow as the numbers hint at

Laptop specs are:
CPU: Intel Celeron 2.4GHz
RAM: 512MB PC2700 - 448 used by system and 64 by IGP
Video: Radeon IGP 345M (RS200M) 64MB
Display: 1024x768 @ 100Hz (32 bit)
Sound: Conexant AMC Audio
DirectX: 9.0C
OS: XP Pro SP1
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